Series in one sentence:
Nothing's more attractive than an asexual sugar addict.
Series in more sentences:
A young woman with social issues is madly in love with her colleague, who can only be persuaded by his favourite brand of marshmallows.
This was fairly boring, because the episodes are really short and don't establish much.
It would've been better if this was a full-fledged anime that properly explored this unlikely romance, instead of putting so much focus on the joke that this grown, clearly mature man is obsessed with marshmallows.
Also, the last episode was a nightmare, what a shit ending to give any show.
Series in one sentence:
Beef or chicken?
Series in more sentences:
Two young friends enter the world of popular media and have all kinds of adventures together.
I didn't think I'd come across something that would surpass the strange money investments that were Gakuen Handsome and Aho-Girl.
The first episode was quite the introduction. It consisted out of an abundance of random clips and there were even 2 versions of the same episode for some reason. Soon I noticed that every episode had 2 versions; one where the main characters are voiced by men, the other by women. Every time different men and women as well, so far I could tell. An odd decision, but both versions are equally interesting, so why not.
This show is more or less the Japanese version of Tim & Eric, though faster paced and more confusing. It was quick to grow on me, though, I liked the way it doesn't care.
It parodies quite alot of things as well, and luckily for Western audiences, globally known things. Movies, TV series, songs, video games; I was amazed Undertale made an appearance twice.
I'm going to keep on watching this mess.
Oh.
And this series has better lesbians than Citrus and a better stepsibling love story.
NOTE: Watched the first 2 episodes
Series in one sentence:
A girl immediately falls and feels for her rapist.
Series in more sentences:
A typical teenage girl moves into a new and different environment after her mother remarries. On top of that, she has to deal with her stepsister's drama, though finds herself more romantically attached to her every day.
I'm guessing this is the plot, I've only watched 2 episodes, after all.
I JUST finished a series about a rapist getting a free pass. I can't. No more of this shit, please, no.
I couldn't go through with this. In these 2 episodes alone the blonde girl kept getting sexually assaulted by her bland-ass stepsister, and the rest was as boring as this girl's personality.
The speed in which our easily swooned victim became emotionally invested in her stepsister's troubles was ridiculous. Where did her care for her come from? These two had known each other for merely 2 days. In the few scenes they shared, the stepsister acted like a curt bitch or forced herself on her. What is the deep and emotional connection here, exactly?
I planned to watch more than 2 episodes, since I'm always wondering if I can make a fair judgement when I pull the plug this early, but I can't imagine the stepsister giving an excuse for her inappropriate behaviour that I'd agree with.
I don't want these fake romance-rape stories, damn me. Good for you if you accept this kind of horror as a proper basis for a love relationship, though.
It's a typical thing to say; but if the dark-haired girl was a man, I wonder if the common watcher would've surpassed my 2 episode limit.
What kind of people are giving this anime such high ratings?
Series in one sentence:
Heartbreak turns you into a top class actor overnight.
Series in more sentences:
An overworked high school dropout goes out to seek vengeance after she discovers her now famous childhood friend has willingly abused her love and considers her nothing but his maid.
She plans to enter stardom in order to spite him, though her revenge plan doesn't get appreciated much by the big star of the talent agency she's at, and even the boss wants her to learn how to love again for the sake of her future career.
A cool series with an unrewarding, rushed open ending. It's another one of those animes that started before the manga ever got finished, which caused this gut wrenching halt to the story.
I would've been fine with it if they hadn't given screen time to episodes and scenes about less interesting stuff. Why did we see so little from the childhood friend and love interest? Both men's feelings for the main character ended without a real conclusion, while you'd think it's the most important part of the story. Surely they could've given it a better ending than this?
The plot in general was great and I liked the main character fine enough, though I will say her voice actor was all over the place. She kept switching around between 3 different voices and it did not match for me. Those occasional "cute, higher pitched waifu"-lines she delivered just didn't fit the vengeful, yet silly and playful demeanour the main character started showing off the moment she cut her hair.
I also thought the jokey art style -which first seemed to kick in at funny moments, but then started taking over half the series- to be distracting at times. I wish Skip Beat was able to keep better focus on its art style, character development and story progress, but still, it kept me satisfied enough to keep on watching. It could've been worse, I suppose.
A very fun story, indeed. Despite my complaints, I don't think many will disagree, it's worth the watch.
Series in one sentence:
A cute guy would make anyone gay.
Series in more sentences:
A geeky college boy meets up with a famous actor he once recorded a wedding commercial with when they were children. Since he was dressed up as a girl back then, the actor still believes he's female and takes the opportunity to reveal his feelings for him after all these years.
But when he learns the truth about his crush's gender, his world seemingly shatters into pieces, until he realises he can't function without him in his life.
Only 10 episodes, yet it still managed to insert awkward scenes that made our two main characters grow into these unlikeable versions of themselves.
The lady boy, Izumi, is a whiny, spoiled, overdramatic and delusional child who was tolerable in the first half of the already short series, but I started liking less in the second half. He dreams of becoming a manga artist and puts alot of effort into it, but the way he acted after his badly drawn comic got rejected from entering a contest was ridiculous. This episode pretty much describes his whole personality; he's a wuss that constantly needs pampering and expensive bribes to get him to do something. The pure definition of a drain on society.
The actor, Ryoma, was not without flaws himself. He is basically a stalker rapist who tries to distract the viewer from this fact by handing out warm smiles or showing off quirky behaviour. I would've accepted his sexual crimes if it only happened once and someone at least attempted to send the police after him, but as is often the case in animes; sexual molestation between two main characters is either treated as a joke, considered sexy, or "just the mistake of a person who's deeply in love".
Just.. Why didn't the brother and manager call the police for this young boy that nearly got assaulted in his own home? Why were they feeling bad for the perpetrator?
So, why didn't I give this show a worse rating if I have this much to complain about?
Well, the plot itself is pretty great. I also found Ryoma's journey to figuring out his feelings to be natural and decently paced. As he's supposed to be a heterosexual man, it's important to come up with a good reason why he'd suddenly not be, and I was content with the reason. The first few episodes created a nice start for a proper romance story, I enjoyed myself well enough.
Izumi's journey, on the other hand, was extremely clunky. His feelings of love were too sudden, especially for a boy who's insanely obsessed with a female fictional character. At least Ryoma explained to have harboured these feelings for Izumi for 10 years, but what's Izumi's excuse for liking men all of the sudden? He didn't value his first meeting with Ryoma the way Ryoma does, so there was never a basis set for his feelings to grow in this manner.
I think it would've been better if Izumi kept seeing him as just a friend for a tad longer and didn't give him these "cutesy" responses. He was too charmed by his acts of kindness, and if common kindness turns this guy on, I'm surprised he didn't already get into the sack with some creep before all this.
The scene where he invited Ryoma to jump him -because he was depressed or some dumb shit- came out of nowhere, and after this excuse to show off an unfinished sex scene was over, Izumi went back to calling the guy "his big brother". Seriously?
This could've been a very sweet short story, but the relationship of these boys gradually became less interesting and believable.
Series in one sentence:
"Best OC - do not steal" gets his own series.
Series in more sentences:
A young man who once had the drive to become the greatest hero of all time has reached his goal, but finds that having godlike strength makes life quite boring. While his powers and good deeds are glanced over by the people he tries to impress, other heroes and villains are quick to recognize his strength; one of them being a cyborg with a typical backstory, who wishes to be his pupil.
It's been over a year that I watched this, what a ride it was. I've never seen a show take itself so seriously and not seriously at the same time, but it managed to find the right balance, that's a talent by itself.
The series comments on the silliness of comic book characters in general and does so in an entertaining way, I loved it.
Note: I watched this series in English
Series in one sentence:
A group of random anime clichés are forced to care about each other.
Series in more sentences:
A group of random high school students find themselves in a laboratory one day and learn that their nervous system has been connected to each other for an ongoing, secret experiment. But one of the members hasn't been able to feel pain for as long as he can remember and begins to learn the reason for his defect.
For a show about empathy I struggled empathizing with these characters or this objectively immoral "peace experiment" that forced them together.
There were not enough episodes for this group of friends to create a believable bond with each other and it disturbed me that they accepted their situation within a day. They didn't even seem that shocked to learn their city of birth was purely built to experiment on. I'd be sure to move as soon as I was freed from the lunatics controlling the place, but none of these children cared. They never fought back, while they easily could've piled onto their capturers and set flame to those ridiculous mascots walking all over the place, but they heard them out and played along as if they deserved their time. They never even attempted to contact the outside world for help.
Even if this were a pointless endeavour, at least they would've tried, but they obeyed every stupid RPG quest that appeared on their wrist. What for?
These kids continuously got beaten up or nearly killed for no excusable reason, and the portrayal of the perpetrators was so inconsistent, I couldn't guess if they were a genuine villain or just a misinformed good guy.
The lady teacher is a good example of this. She approaches two students with the most fucked up introduction, urges them to flat-out kill another student, but at the end of the anime is suddenly shown to be this sweet, caring person. She even kicks her colleague in the balls; a moment of "betrayal" that is never brought up again.
It felt like only a few key points from the manga were animated, while the interactions that would've made these key points important were left out so they could reach their preferred limit of 12 episodes. Then again, this is blindly assuming the manga is infinite times better than the TV show. I like the idea, but it's not like I have proof. It might be probable that there was no manga before this, which explains the show's flaws even less.
The plot was interesting, Kiznaiver gets points for trying and I see what it could've been, but the execution was greatly lacking and did not turn this show into an exciting ride.
But the intro was hypnotizing, I love hearing electronic songs in anime openings. The English voice acting was good, as well.
NOTE: Watched this series in English and only the first season/part 1
Series in one sentence:
The original Fullmetal Alchemist, but rushed and unfunny.
Series in more sentences:
Two
young brothers try to resurrect their dead mother using magic based in
science, called "alchemy", but learn about the sacrifice that is needed
in order to get such a wish fulfilled, the hard way. The eldest loses
his leg and has to further give up his arm to save his little brother's
fleeting soul in time; who now has to live his life as an empty piece of
armour.
Obviously
not content with this, considering their failure to get their actual
mother back, the two go out to find ways to restore their body. The
eldest decides to join the military as a state alchemist and hopes to
get exposed to more knowledge that'll get his little brother his body
back.
This one's a bit difficult to sit through when you've just finished the original. The one sentence description says it all.
I believe this remake exists because they thought it was necessary to have the same thing, but more accurate to the manga. I'm not familiar with it, so all I can do is assume that all the
changes and added stuff in Brotherhood is entirely accurate, which explains why some fans love this show the way they do. I can't relate, but I can understand.
Still, I'm baffled that many of them say it's even better than the original.
I believe the comics were still going on when the first series was created, so many of the episodes are -or were considered- filler. It might be strange to watch them back now that the books have finished and there's more of the story out there, but I find that an unfair point to make against it. That's not the anime's fault.
My complaints concerning Brotherhood are not the changes and added content, but the way it downplays serious
moments, consistently. When I turned on this show, I noticed right away that the exciting, fun, and tragic storylines from the first anime were extremely rushed and soulless. They inserted pointless humor and funny faces in scenes that were once treated with dignity, I found it a bit insulting.
Some things were done better, like the storyline where Alphonse assumed he was created by his brother, the fast pacing helped here, but I became so annoyed by above mentioned negatives, I no longer enjoyed the show enough to keep on watching.
Maybe I'll continue somewhere in the far future.
Note: watched the first 4 episodes in Japanese, then switched over to English
Series in one sentence:
THE FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST IS NOT THE ARMOURED KNIGHT OVER THERE, BUT THIS SMOLL BOI?
Series in more sentences:
Two young brothers try to resurrect their dead mother using magic based in science, called "alchemy", but learn about the sacrifice that is needed in order to get such a wish fulfilled, the hard way. The eldest loses his leg and has to further give up his arm to save his little brother's fleeting soul in time; who now has to live his life as an empty piece of armour.
Obviously not content with this, considering their failure to get their actual mother back, the two go out to find ways to restore their body. The eldest decides to join the military as a state alchemist and hopes to get exposed to more knowledge that'll get his little brother his body back.
For as long as I've been on the internet, I've seen people talk about this anime, but I never bothered to check it out. Now that my Netflix uploaded it, I figured I might as well.
It was a lovely ride. There was alot of humor, but also alot of tragedy. I didn't think this was that kind of anime, many characters didn't get a happy ending. Or not happy enough, I should say.
There's little to add, except that the Japanese dub bothered me. Edward's voice was too female for my liking, while he's supposed to be a 15 year old boy. I preferred the English version.
Besides that, a really cool story with the right amount of episodes and pacing to tell it.
Series in one sentence:
Somewhere a "school" exists for spoiled rich kids to freely gamble their parents' money away.
Series in more sentences:
A private school built on gambling requires its students to develop their talent and reach the top by making the other students owe them as much money as possible.
One day a new student attends school, and while she appears innocent at first glance, it's her insane obsession for gambling, as for her disinterest for money and own reputation, that helps her excel in ways that no one else ever could.
The plot, characters and setting are ridiculous. There's nothing to take seriously and no one to cheer for, but the anime's saving grace are the games it comes up with and the relatively creative ways the main character figures out her rivals' play style. I enjoyed watching her gamble, even though I don't share her passion or am entertained by everything else going on.
One of these "going ons" is the fact all these popular kids act like super-intimidating villains when they think they're winning the game, which makes this character trait hardly a character trait and more like a lazy way to make someone look cool and intimidating. But they all do it. They all show off the same evil smile, it became tiresome fast, much like the response these fake villains have when they lose miserably. Every time, they turn into a crying mess, which invites their rival to be the smiling villain. This is not how you write characters.
The main character's friends I also don't like. One of these girls rips her fucking nails off for Pete's sake, and the other one used to (also) be an abusive psychopath. The only good and normal person in this entire school is the boy from the beginning, who surprisingly doesn't get all that much to do in this show.
Despite the unrelatable characters, unhealthy friendships and sets of clichés, I still think this show is worth watching for the competitions.
